Author: Rebecca Stead
Title: When You Reach me
Illustrator: Rebecca Stead
Publisher: Wendy lamb Books
Year: 2009
Genre: Newbery
Format: Hardcover
Reading Level: Advanced
Interest Level: Late elementary, middle school, high school
Topics: Friendship & mystery
Summary: This book will keep the reader very interested with the spinning plot and mysterious characters. Miranda, a sixth grader and her best friend Sal know their way around the neighborhoods of New york City pretty well. Sal is pushed by a guy one day with Miranda and has not acted the same since. Miranda and Sal are no longer best of friends. One day Miranda finds her apartment door where she lives unlocked and the spare key is missing. Miranda receives eerie letters- a total of four throughout the story from someone she thinks she does not know. Miranda realizes the person writing the letters must know her very well. Miranda goes through ups and downs with the letters she receives. One day she likes it the next day she does not. This is a great mystery book for young adults. At the end she finds out that the person writing the letters is traveling through time. This is a must read for everyone of all ages.
Extension activity: Have children write letters to people they love the most, but not say who it is from. This is fun for kids because they feel like it is a huge mystery. The class would mail out the letters from the school. It would be required for the kids to tell the person who they wrote to that it was them writing the letter after some time. This would be fun for the kids to pretend they are "secret writers."
